Soroptimist International Bath and District

Our club won the Ellen Brawn award at our regional conference in Brixham on Saturday for our programme action work achieved over the last year. We were stunned and delighted and incredibly proud that our club has been recognised for the work and dedication that we have put in, and that women and girls locally, nationally and internationally have been empowered by our club. Four members attended the conference and received the award from regional Programme Action Officer Di Hill.

We were fortunate to have 2 ladies, Yvette and Mum Sandra from India (Bombay, Chembur club) come and visit us for a few days. We were able to show them the local area and also learn about the Indian culture and the good things that their club achieve.

The club members joined them for a meal at Hall and Woodhouse and we exchanged views and news which made it a very memorable evening.

We also had Halima from Mombasa who dropped in for a meal also and introduced herself and hopefully she will be visiting the club when her work brings her to Bath.

President Jenny presented a Toilet Twinning certificate to Hall and Woodhouse restaurant on Wednesday evening and this framed certificate will be displayed in the ladies toilet upstairs near to where we hold our monthly meetings.

This toilet is twinned with one in Sierra Leone and there’s a photo of it for all to see. We were able to build a toilet with a legacy left to the club by a member and we have 2 more that have been built and will be presented at a later date.

This is such a valuable project and really does make the lives of people in desperate places much more bearable.

We did our annual bucket collection at Prior Park Garden Centre for ‘Save the Children’ today and raised £250 towards the charity that is celebrating 100 years. The sun was shining which brought out the customers with a friendly smile.

At our club meeting David Crosweller from the charity ‘Women and Girls’ represented his daughter who is the founder of the charity.  It’s a charity that provides unique sanitary protection to girls and women in India.  The sanitary towels are made from a unique material that can be washed in dirty water but remain clean to use again and again.  This is transfroming lives beyond measure. We gave David a cheque for £100 which we raised from a Neal’s Yard party.

Sanitary towels made with anti bacterial material.

cheque presetnation with President Jenny

Immediate Past President Diane handed over the Chain of Office to newly appointed President Jenny at our AGM.  President Jenny then gave a a welcoming speech to the attending members and said that she was looking forward to the year ahead and not only working toegther to improve lives of women and girls but also enjoying each other’s company within the club.

We wish her a fulfilling year ahead.

Some of our club members filled plastic bottles with unrecyclable plastic which will be sent to places like Africa to be used for the construction industry or even making playpark activity structures.  It’s a clever way of keeping plastics out of landfill.  Check out ecobricks.org to find out more.